Crossed Paths
by Niwen
Summary: Two travelers find themselves in a difficult situation, the beginnings of unexpected adventures. Their paths will cross more often than they think.
1. Welcome to Helgen !

**Hi ! It's my first long story. A very big thanks to TheGreatJabberyJamie for his advice and for correcting my mistakes :D**

**Skyrim belongs to Bethesda.**

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**Chapter 1: Welcome to Helgen !**

Everything was calm in Skyrim's hills and mountains, the trees were rustling under the afternoon's sun and the few clouds in the sky were lazily floating.A howling could be heard from time to time. There was no indication of the conflict taking place in Skyrim, except the Stormcloak or Imperial camps one could find if they walked away from the road. However, it was more common to run into Imperial or Stormcloak patrols than any adventurers.

Yet, a feminine figure was slowly walking on a rocky and uneven road. She was wearing a long, dark and blue mage robe and a hood hiding most of her face. Only the bottom of her face was visible, and you could see a straight nose, thin and pale lips, and a small pointed chin. She seemed to be quite young. On her back, she was carrying a slightly heavy old knapsack. With a map in her hand, she was trying to find out if she was on the right path. But without any landmark, it was really difficult, and she could only follow the road, hoping she was going the right way.

Despite everything, she finally sighted some buildings. A stone wall was visible further down the road. It seemed to be part of a keep, or a fortified village on a hillside.

For a moment she hesitated. What if the keep was in the hands of bandits? She was looking for a safe place, not an ambush. She mustered up her courage and decided to move forward carefully to see who was occupying the keep.

As she got closer, she could see some human forms more and more clearly guarding the entrance. Recognising Imperial uniforms, she let a relieved sigh escape her lips. The keep was safe. So she moved forward, making sure she was seen from afar, so they wouldn't mistake her with an enemy.

She went through the gates of the keep under the observing eyes of the guards, which were making her feel uneasy. Then there was a crossroads, quickly eyeing each road, she choose the left turning. There were more buildings on the left than on the right. That meant more chances to find an inn where she could rest. Moreover, she caught sight of a Thalmor Agent talking with imperial soldiers on the right.

On the path she had chosen, there were several buildings made of stone, wood and thatch. Among them, stood a larger building.

_Probably the inn_,she thought,_ finally I'll have a real meal._

She had left the province of Cyrodiil days before, and the further she went, the harder it was to find an inn. All she wished for was a nice soup or a stew.

As she was quietly walking towards the inn, she heard the sound of horses and carts. Turning back, she saw two carts escorted by two Imperials riding horses. One of them went to the Thalmor Agents and the other one continued to follow the carts. She got out of the way and looked at them as they went past her.

Four people were in the back of each cart, and among the eight people, five were wearing the same kind of armor. They probably were prisoners, maybe those Stormcloaks she had heard about. Two others were wearing rags, and the last one was wearing luxurious clothing. But there was something that shocked her, they were all Nords, except one, who was a Bosmer, also called Wood-Elves. He had tanned skin, copper-colored hair and some green war-paint encircling his eyes and running down his cheeks.

Noticing she was arriving at the inn, she briefly followed the convoy and stopped at the door. The inn-keeper was outside, looking at the carts go by and she took advantage of this opportunity to ask him a question.

"Hello, what's happening here?"

The inn-keeper was suddenly aware of her presence.

"Oh hello! Are you an adventurer passing by? Welcome to Helgen! Although it's not the best time, it seems the Imperials managed to capture Ulfric Stormcloak and some of his soldiers." He pointed towards a tower, in front of which there was a chopping block and an executioner. "They are going to be executed."

One of the prisoners wearing rags chose that moment to try to flee. But he was shot down by the Imperials archers. It was now the Bosmer's turn to get his identity checked, it seemed he was not meant to be there but he was still sent to the chopping block.

A light growl was heard and the inn-keeper turned his head toward the young woman. The latter had the feeling her cheeks were burning and was crossing her arms on her stomach trying to suppress the noise coming from it.

"Haha, someone seems to be starving! Get inside, I'll make you some food before you lose your appetite," the inn-keeper exclaimed.

She then followed him inside the inn and sat down at a table, sighing with relief. She pulled her hood down revealing the face of an Altmer, a High-Elf. She had golden skin and green eyes. Her long brown hair, held by two braids going from her temples to the back of her head, framed her face. A dark blue tattoo, in shape of a diadem, ornamented her forehead and she had three small lines oh each cheek.

She had barely sat down before she heard a rumbling sound.

_Thunder__? No__,__ it's too different,_ she thought with a puzzled look.

Another rumbling sound was heard. Closer, and she couldn't help but frown. A few long seconds passed by without a sound. And suddenly an enormous roar, and screams could be heard. Everything was shaking. Something fell down on the inn's roof, making a part of the roof, and the second floor collapse. The Elf just had enough time to avoid the debris.

She stood up slowly, looking around and she noticed the debris had fallen where the inn-keeper was previously. Outside, everything was chaos, and through the new openings she could see stones falling from the darkened sky.

The noise of a fall near her caught her attention and she found herself face to face with the Wood-Elf wearing rags and with his hand bound together. She stared at him, shocked to see him since he was sent to the chopping block.

"Come on! We have to get out of here," Exclaimed the Bosmer pointing toward an opening in the wall.

Snapping out of it, the Altmer called out to him.

"Wait!" She took the dagger that was hanging at her belt and proceeded to cut the Bosmer's binding.

"Thanks, now come on, we must find a safe place."

The young elf caught her knapsack and followed the Bosmer through the opening. The fortified village was in ruin, beams were burning, stones were scattered across the floor. She could feel the heat on her skin. A shadow landed not too far away and she caught a glimpse of a legendary creature before being pulled into a relatively safe place. A dragon. A dragon was attacking the village. The panic that had begun to creep into her mind had settled down for good.

A brown haired imperial soldier and a child took refuge not far away. The soldier left the child with another soldier. Spotting the Bosmer, previously a prisoner, he exclaimed :

"Ah! Still alive? Follow me if you it to stay that way!"

The Bosmer followed without hesitation, but realised that the young Altmer wasn't following. Indeed, she was frozen, panicked and shocked. He took her hand and pulled her after him, making her stagger.

After a while, they managed to arrive in front of a large stone building with a tower. A Stormcloak soldier arrived at the same time and began a heated argument with the Imperial soldier. The Stormcloak called out to the Bosmer and try to persuade him to go with him. The young Altmer, not knowing the Stormcloak, chose to follow the Imperial. She had been through Cyrodiil and she more or less trusted the Imperials Soldiers. Well, more than an unknown soldier.

The Wood Elf hesitated but chose to follow the other two, leaving the Stormcloak. Then they rushed into the stone building in order to escape the dragon destroying Helgen.


	2. Bye bye Helgen !

**A/N : Hi ! Here comes the second chapter :) A big thanks to TheGreatJabberyJamie for correcting my mistakes :)**

**The next chapter may take a little while, I'm working on a picture and it takes a lot of time :°**

**Don't hesitate to give you opinion and review :)**

**Skyrim Belongs to Bethesda of course :)**

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**Chapter 2 : Bye bye Helgen !**

The three survivors were greeted by the coolness of the room and the dim light of the torches. They were standing in a room with a few beds on the left and tables on the right. Probably the barracks.

"Looks like were the only ones to have arrived here. We are safe, but who knows how long?" began the Imperial soldier. He turned towards his two companions.

"Ah! My name's Hadvar, we have to cooperate if we want to escape alive, I hope you don't mind?"

The Altmer stared at him before answering hesitantly:

"My name is Niwen , and I don't mind."

"Gaenor, and no problem" answered the Bosmer, "however I need an armour and a weapon."

"Look around you, we are in the barracks, you should find something in a chest."

Niwen sat down on a chair while Gaenor was looking through the chests and she realised that she had lost her knapsack along the way. There were potions, spell-books she wanted to study, and a few clothes.

And now, she only had a few septims left in her pocket and some potions in the small bag hanging from her belt. Her blue robe was dirty and covered with soot and ashes, actually it was more black, grey and brown than blue.

"Don't you want to put on armour instead of your old robes?" Niwen looked up and realised Hadvar was talking to her. She briefly stared at him. He was also covered with soot and ashes, and he had also been sweating because of the heat of the flames. Remembering the question, she raised her hand, her palm opened up and made a small flame appear.

"Oh! A mage, but what are you doing in Helgen?"

"I was heading toward Winterhold, I just wanted to rest a little at the inn before continuing."

Gaenor came close to them. He had found some Imperial armour and a sword.

"We should move on before this place collapses on us."

They moved into a corridor and heard voices a bit further away. As they got closer, the voices stopped and the sharp eyes of the Bosmer caught a glimpse of a blue sash trying to hide. But (it was ) too late, he had seen them.

"Stormcloaks," he whispered to his two comrades.

"I'll try to negotiate with them, don't attack." answered Hadvar as he moved on toward the gate. He pulled the chain to open it and went into the circular room. He had barely walked into the room before he had to dodge an axe falling upon him. Gaenor didn't lose time and rushed into the room unsheathing his sword. Niwen was frozen. She was looking at the fight wide eyed, motionless. The two Stormcloaks were killed. As the Imperial soldier was cleaning the blood from his sword, the Bosmer finally realised that Niwen was standing still.

"Never seen someone get killed?" He asked raising an eyebrow.

She looked at him in the eyes.

"No" she whispered, "I've seen dead people but never… when they were dying."

"You'll have to get used to it. In some situations, it's kill or be killed. Don't hesitate to roast your enemies to death in these situations because they will have no pity." He finished before turning towards Hadvar.

The latter opened a door and they went down large stairs. Further, they almost got crushed when a part of the ceiling fell down, and they were forced to go through another door leading to a store room.

Two Stormcloaks were in the room and one of them shoved past Hadvar to attack Niwen who looked like the weakest of the three in her simple blue robe. It was the last decision he ever made. Horrified to see a warrior armed to the teeth come at her, she reacted without thinking and summoned her magicka. The Stormcloak screamed in agony as he was burning and a sword ran through him, putting an end to his torment.

Niwen couldn't believe it. She had intentionally hurt someone with her magic. Until now, the injuries she had caused were all accidents during training. She felt a bit nauseous, but tried to calm down saying to herself the situation was different. After all, that man was trying to kill her.

She didn't really pay attention to what Hadvar was saying.. He had talked about potions it seemed. Seeing her two comrades searching in the room, she decided to do the same and found out a few magickas potions.

They moved on and the corridors led them to a torture room. Two Stormcloak soldiers were attacking two Imperials, apparently the torturers. One of them casted a shock spell on one of the Stormcloak before Hadvar and Gaenor came to finish him. The second one didn't last long, he was alone against four opponents.

In the room, there were two pillars and behind them, along the wall, there were three cages. Near a pillar stood a table, with a knapsack and a book on it.

Gaenor searched the bodies, in hope to find something useful while Hadvar was explaining what was happening outside. Meanwhile, Niwen approached the cages and couldn't help but gasp at the sight of a dead mage inside one of them. A small purse and a spell tome were next to him. She tried to open the cage, but it was locked of course.

She came closer to the Imperials who were arguing.

"Excuse me," she politely interrupted them and they turned her way. The one she supposed was the main torturer glared at her.

"What?" He asked, irritation showing in his voice.

"Do you have the key to open that cage please?" She replied, pointing at the cage with the dead mage.

"No, it was lost, what did you want to do anyway?"

"Get the spell tome, he doesn't need it anymore now." She retorted and glared at him.

"Try with those lockpicks" spoke Hadvar before the situation got out of hand. He held out a little bag with the lockpicks for her, she then looked at him with a questioning look. At this moment, Gaenor came to help and show her how to use the lockpicks with her dagger. After a few fails, they managed to open the cage. She entered to take the purse and the spell tome, and was about to get out when Gaenor asked her:

"Don't you want to take his robe and his hood? I heard that mage's stuff were enchanted."

Niwen looked at him with her green eyes and then turned towards the corpse. After some thoughts, she knelt down next to the body and touched the hood. She concentrated and tried to find out which enchantment was on it. A small increase of magicka, it had to be a novice hood then. On the robes, she discovered a regenerating magicka enchantment.

"Indeed, they are enchanted and better than mine. But I'll need help to remove them off the corpse."

The Bosmer signalled her to get out and he went in to remove the enchanted clothes. Meanwhile Niwen was inspecting the room, looking for a bag. She found one on a table with a book entitled "The Book of the Dragonborn".

_A dragon attack and __a__ book about old legends. Coincidence?_ She thought after having leafed through the book quickly. She took the knapsack and the book and got back to the Bosmer. He had almost finished removing the mage's robe. She put them in the bag, but chose to wear the hood. Gaenor raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

"Aren't you putting the robe on?"

The Alter looked at him as if he had grown another head and pointed at the other men. He realised he had asked her something indecent. She couldn't changer her clothes here, there were three men and a male Bosmer and she had nowhere to change.

"My apologies, I kind of forgot about the situation." He got out of the cage and they joined Hadvar and the torturer's assistant who were waiting for them at the entrance of a corridor.

They resumed their journey and went through another torture room. At the end of it, they found a collapsed wall showing a tunnel. It was the only way, so they choose to go through.

A few moments later, Gaenor who was leading them stopped and signalled them to quiet down. They (then) heard why, voices could be heard, and it sounded like Stormcloaks. They continued carefully and Gaenor inspected the room stealthily. Four Stormcloaks were in a kind of cave. Two were on the opposite side of the room, one was just in front of the exit of the corridor, but with his back turned) to them, and the last was barely visible. He seemed to be in a lower part of the cave, possibly crossed by a stream, judging by the sound of water he could hear.

He got closer to his comrades and whispered to them:

"There are four Stormcloaks, the first one will be easy to take down, the second is not far, I'll take care of him. But there are two archers on the other side, we need to take care of them quickly"

"I'll take care of that." replied Hadvar

The Bosmer nodded and went back to the exit of the corridor, followed by the others. He jumped out of his spot and ran his sword through the soldier before he could make a move. Hadvar didn't lose time and crossed the small bridges leading to the other side of the cave while Gaenor was attacking the soldier in the lower part.

The torturer's assistant was not lucky and got struck in the neck by an arrow. Not wanting to end up like him, Niwen chose to follow Hadvar. An unpleasant smell assaulted her nose and she realised that the archers were walking in oil. She gathered her courage and signalled to Hadvar to get out of her way and she casted a flame spell. The air was suddenly hotter as the oil caught on fire. The archers barely had time to register what was happening.

Gaenor, after killing his opponent, came closer to the burnings corpses. Thankfully, one of the bows fell far from the bodies and wasn't burned down to ashes. He grasped it and recovered some arrows but most of them were burnt and useless.

"Why is there so many Stormcloaks here? There are more than at the execution." he asked staring at the corpses laying at his feet.

"They probably came to rescue Ulfric," supposed Hadvar, "If they managed to come here, that means there's an exit nearby!"

"Wait… wait... wait… You're telling us that… You were guiding us without knowing where you were going?" suddenly asked Niwen, not believing what she heard.

Hadvar was suddenly quite embarrassed but still answered. "At the beginning, yes but I didn't think the ceiling would fall in front of us."

A long sigh escaped the Altmer's lips, while a small smile was forming on the Bosmer's. They moved on and crossed a little wooden bridge. As they entered another cave, rocks crashed into the little wooden structure, destroying it. It felt like an earthquake and made the three survivors lose their balance.

"We are lucky… it almost fell on us!" Exclaimed Hadvar, staring) with wide eyes at the way they came from.

They were now standing in a large cave. It was cooler and the air was more humid. A stream ran through the cave and rushed into an opening large enough for adults to go through. Carefully, they moved on and after a crossroad, they ended up in another cave. A lot of Frostbite could be seen. Said creatures were not far and attacked the intruders as soon as they spotted them.

The rest of the way was rather quiet, only one victim was deplorable: a bear that was on the way out. Gaenor took some time to skin it. He had thought of selling its skin or using it, he still didn't really know what to do. This action earned him a disgusted and horrified look from the mage.

Finally, they found out the exit and the heat of the sunrays entered their bodies as they left the cave.


	3. Riverwood, here we come

**A/N : I'm sorry for updating so late! My family moved and it's hard to have a good connection now. Here's the third chapter, a big thanks to my beta TheGreatJabberyJamie :)**

**Skyrim belongs to Bethesda etc...**

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**Chapter 3: Riverwood, here we come.**

The three survivors from Helgen arrived outside of the cave, they took a few moments to adapt to the temperature and luminosity changes. They were relieved to be finally outside. The sun was still high in the sky. Only a few hours had passed since the attack of Helgen.

A roar was heard near them and they rushed to hide, one choosing to hide behind a rock, the other two, covered by the leaves of some trees.

Gaenor carefully stood up and watched the dark figure of the dragon move away over a mountain with Nordic ruins. Niwen sat neat him, physically and psychologically tired. A dragon and killing men was too much for her. In a trivial attempt to occupy her mind, she took her wet boots off and tried to make them dry. But she kept thinking about the men she had set on fire. She had acted under an impulse and now reality seemed to overwhelm her. It was kill or be killed but to go through it the first time was often a traumatic experience.

While Niwen's mind was boiling, Gaenor and Hadvar were talking about what they should do.

"The closest town is Riverwood, we should head there. My uncle is the town's blacksmith, he will help us." announced Hadvar pointing to the general direction of the small town, at the foot of the mountain with the Nordic ruins.

Gaenor nodded and turned back toward the Altmer mage and went up to her. Lost in her thought, she didn't see him come and was startled when his shadow was upon her. She raised her head to see him. He crouched down next to her.

"Are you okay? You seem to be troubled."

Niwen stared at him for a few seconds to see if he was really worried or not. She supposed he was and was not sure how to explain her thoughts. He managed to see she was hesitant and guessed it was about the fights.

"You're really aren't used to see people get killed it seems, I can see it in your eyes" he said gently. "Unfortunately, it's only the beginning since there's a civil war in Skyrim."

She sighed and asked a question that was on her mind for a while "But how can I forget?"

"You can't. You have to live with this memory, even if it's a bad one" Said the Bosmer with a hint of sadness in his voice. "There's a town not far from here, Hadvar has family there and will guide us. Get up and we'll continue."

She put her boots back but they were still wet and cold on her skin. However, she didn't have a choice, if she wasn't wearing them she could get hurt.

Hadvar was waiting for them a little further. Together they continued on the road. Niwen followed them without paying attention to what they said, she was thinking about what Gaenor told her. She almost crashed into Hadvar when he stopped and pointed the Nordic ruins on the mountain in front of them.

"Do you see these ruins ? It's Bleak Falls Barrow, when I was a small boy it gave me nightmares."

"Why is it called like that?" asked the Altmer, suddenly curious.

Hadvar just stared at her blinking, as if he just remembered she was with them or as if he just realised it was a good question and that he didn't know the answer, perhaps both.

"I never asked, but I guess there must be some waterfall somewhere or something like that... I never went inside so I don't know. There are Draugr inside." He said suddenly shivering a little.

"There are what ?" Asked Niwen, not sure of what she heard.

"Draugr, there were Nordic warriors who died long ago and … I don't know how it works, but apparently, they come back to life to attack those who enter their tombs."

"If my memory doesn't fail me, there were serving dragon priests" Gaenor stepped in the talk and seeing the lost look of Niwen, he added "Dragon priests were serving Dragons, they had great powers and were terrible. They may still be."

"They are still alive?"

"Alive, no… more like… living deads? If the draugr can come back to life, there a lot of chance that the dragon priest can also. There are rumours about them protecting treasures."

Without thinking they had moved on while talking and came to see three standing stones on a stone pedestal. Getting closer, they could see that each one had a different pattern. One the left one, there was a character wearing a hood and some dots. One the middle one, it was a man wearing some robes, maybe mage's one. The dots were also different. One the last one, there was a character holding a weapon and a shield and with different dots.

"These are the Guardian Stones, three of the thirteen standing stones in Skyrim" Explained Hadvar. "Each one represents a path. From left to right, there are the Thief, the Mage and the Warrior."

"What's their use?" Asked Gaenor, examining one of them totally fascinated.

"It seems they help the people on the path they choose. Personnally, I think it's only symbolic." Concluded Hadvar.

His two comrades stayed silent a few moments and then Gaenor got closer to the Thief Stone and touched it. He quickly removed his hand when a strange light spread across the pattern and the dots. In fact it was a constellation, not simple dots. After a few seconds, the light went out.

"A thief? You know it's never too late to change..."

"I'm not a thief, I'm a hunter! Have you ever seen a hunter attack an elk with a shield and a sword?" Asked Gaenor slightly indignant. "It is important for a hunter to be stealthy."

"Excuse me. What makes you think it will help you?"

"Instinct."

They were interrupted when Niwen approached the Mage Stone and touched it, without much surprise from them.

"Even if it only symbolic, it doesn't hurt to activate it." She declared while activating the Stone. She turned toward them and smiled.

"Shouldn't we continue? The sun is going down."

The Man and the Mer cast a look in the sun's direction and saw that she was right. Then they continued. Niwen seemed to feel better, the small talk helped her to forget her dark thoughts. She remarked that Gaenor stopped regularly to harvest plants along the road and that he put them in the knapsack he was carrying... But when did he take it? Niwen hadn't paid attention she wasn't carrying it anymore. She then realised how much she was distracted before and how much it could have been dangerous. She should be more careful from now on.

The end of their journey was almost calm. There was just a wolf attack and curiously they avoided Gaenor. Once they were killed, they made a stop to let Gaenor skin the wolves. They finally arrived at Riverwood when the sun was going down behind the mountains and when the sky was slowly turning pink. They were tired and hungry but happy to arrive in one piece.

From the road, they could not see much about Riverwood. The village was on a riverbank. A stony wall was surrounding the town. A few buildings could be seen, along with a few villagers and some chickens.

The closer they got, the better they could smell hot metal, fire and food. The thought of a hot meal gave them a little energy and they walked faster. The guards welcomed Hadvar but stared at his companions, mostly Niwen. Their dark looks made her feel uneasy.

Hadvar finally put an end to the silence.

"Everything seems so calm here... Come on, my uncle lives here." He said while pointing at the forge near the entrance of the village.

Side by side with a house, there was a porch with a forge, an anvil, a workbench and a grindstone. Embers were still feeding the forge and were sending waves of heat out. A blond man with a beard, wearing a red shirt under a blacksmith apron, was working on some metal. He stopped when he saw Hadvar approaching.

"Hello Uncle Alvor!" Exclaimed Hadvar.

"Hadvar, my nephew! What are you doing here? I thought you were in Solitude!"

Niwen didn't pay attention to their talk as her attention was caught elsewhere. Some villagers were staring at her, with a distant and unfriendly look. Most likely because of the war between the Aldmeri Dominion and the Empire that happened years ago. But, even if it hurt to be looked at with so much hate, that was not what caught her attention. Nor Gaenor's it seemed. Indeed, an old woman not far from them was saying she had seen a dragon fly in the sky. Her son and the villagers must have thought she was mad, but Niwen and Gaenor didn't think so.

They exchanged a glance and then remarked that Hadvar was moving toward the blacksmith's house. They followed him, not knowing what had been said.

The blacksmith entered his house and called his wife.

"Sigrid, we have guests!"

The womand called Sigrid stopped her activities. She had red hair stopping at her shoulder blades. Some strands were attached at the back of her head. She wore a simple dress with an apron. She cast a glance towards their guests and recognised Hadvar.

"Oh! Hadvar! We were worried about you! Ah you brought some friends? You must be starving! Sit down while I cook some food."

A girl was half-hiding behind her, she had chestnut brown hair. Her hiding spot disappeared when her mother moved to cook.

The three survivors from Helgen sat down at the table. There were only three chairs, Alvor had to bring one from the basement to sit down with them. Niwen had her back to the wall, while the soldier and the hunter were back to the fireplace. Then the blacksmith asked them what they were doing here.

Niwen chose to let the two other answer and she ate a bit of bread and cheese. She politely thanked Sigrid when she brought a bowl of soup. After having quenched her thirst and calmed her hunger, she tried to listen what the men and the mer were saying.

"...The Jarl must know that there is a dragon somewhere in the area. You should meet the Jarl Balgruuf in Whiterun and tell him your story."

Gaenor seemed to have listened the whole talk as he nodded silently and finished his soup. Then they talked about random things. But Niwen felt she was becoming more and more tired and she finally leaned her head against the wall and she slowly succumbed to sleep.

The other realised later that the High-Elf had fallen asleep on her chair.


	4. Small Talk

**A/N :**** Thank you for your reviews, it gives me courage and motivation to continue translating my chapters :D**

**As usual a big thanks to my wonderful Beta (and sorry for my mistakes :p).**

**Skyrim belongs to Bethesda etc...**

**Chapter 4: Small talk :**

It was the noise of some tools combined with voices, which pulled Niwen from her deep slumber. She was on something soft, but slightly tickling her nose. She rubbed her cheek against her improvised pillow and sighed in satisfaction. She would have liked to go back to sleep and not hear the disturbing noises anymore. However, something was troubling her, not only the noise but something else. She didn't really know what... after all, she was comfortably laying down under some furs...

_Lying down under some furs?! But I fell asleep on a chair!_ Thinking that, she jolted awake, alerted and slightly panicked.

Her abrupt move startled Alvor and Sigrid's daughter, named Dorthe, who was in the same room, but not seen by Niwen yet. They were in the basement, Niwen was near the stairs leading up and she almost hit her head while waking up. Not far from her, there was another stack of fur. In the back of the room, there was a basin, big enough for a person to bath in.

"Hello, did you sleep well?"

Niwen turned around and saw she was not alone.

"Uh, yes thanks, but what time is it?"

"Early, the sun is rising. You friend left earlier, he followed daddy at his forge I guess," explained Dorthe.

"Oh, okay thanks."

Then she went up the stairs. Sigrid was cooking something and was alone in the main room. The Altmer sat, ate a bit and tried to remember what happened the previous evening. But she was so tired that she couldn't remember well.

"I'm heating up some water, I thought you would appreciate washing up a bit," announced Sigrid with a smile. "The men are outside so you won't have to worry."

After a quick look at her clothes, the Altmer could only agree. They were really dirty. She could see some ash, blood and mud on her. She didn't want to see her face, she must have looked horrible. The Nordic woman took the water and went down the stairs, quickly followed by Niwen.

"Oh by the way, I washed the mages robes that were in the knapsack, Gaenor said they were on a mage's corpse..."

Sigrid went to the basin and filled it with water. Seeing how much water there was in, Niwen guessed that Sigrid must have begun to fill it quite early. The Altmer thanked her and took the mages robe, now clean, and went to bath.

Meanwhile, under the porch with the forge, Gaenor was working on leather with Alvor because he needed a reliable armour. Even though he had pelts, it would have taken too much time to tan them, so he negotiate with Alvor to exchange his pelts with some armour. Afterward, he went to the workbench, to strengthen his newly acquired stuff with some leather he had bought. He didn't want to take advantage of the blacksmith's generosity. While he was working on each piece, he had to wear the old Imperial armour he had found the day before.

He had just finished strengthening his armbands when he heard the door of Alvor's house open and someone approaching. He cast a quick glance towards the newcomer and saw it was Niwen, wearing the new mage robes. Her hood was on her shoulders, showing her black hair and the tattoo on her forehead. She sat down next to the workbench and silently watched him work. Her golden skin, more visible without the dirt and ash, was slightlyorange with the forge's glow. For a few minutes, there was only a serene silence between the two Mer. However, she finally spoke.

"I envy you... I can't sew at all, even a simple piece of cloth."

"Practice helps," answered the Bosmer with a smile. "When you spend years hunting in the wild, you have to manage things alone."

"Maybe... but now my mother won't let me use her sewing tools anymore and my father won't let me near his forge!" She said trying to look away, embarrassed.

"Why?"

"Uh, let's say.. (…) he asked me to make a small iron dagger... and well... it turned out like a.… thing... vaguely shaped like a... broken butter knife. He said he had never had a worst apprentice." She finished depressed.

Gaenor stayed silent a few seconds, before trying to cheer her up.

"We cannot be good in everything we try, see, I'm very bad at enchanting stuff... well, I think "bad" is not strong enough to explain it. What I want to say, is that there must be a field where you are better?" He asked while putting his new boots aside, and taking his helmet.

"Enchanting, I've tried and it seemed I was good at it."

"It's not common to see people able to enchant stuff correctly. I saw a lot of people pretending to be able to do it, and half of the time either their enchantments didn't work, or it turned against them. It's the same with alchemy, there are a lot of charlatans."

"Oh I saw some of them in Cyrodiil. One of them was trying to sell an invisibility potion, but instead of disappearing, people were glowing like torchbugs!"

They couldn't help but laugh as they imagined it. They heard another laugh with them. Alvor being near, had heard them talking.

"It's the first time I hear a High-Elf tell a joke" He exclaimed once their laughter had died down.

"Have you seen a lot of Altmer until then?"asked Niwen.

"Hum mainly Thalmor."

"Well it's normal if you've never hear an Altmer tell a joke before, if a Thalmor soldier had told one in front of their officers, they would get in trouble. Their discipline is really severe."

"And sometimes it feels like they want to push it on others," intervened Gaenor, while beginning to work on the main piece of his armour.

Gaenor's sentence brought back some memories in Niwen's mind. When she went in Cyrodiil, she discovered how the other races felt about the Altmer and she was not prepared for so much hate. Even when she tried to explain she was mere mage and not a Thalmor Agent, that didn't stop their insults and hate, and that hurt her. People were blinded by their hate and couldn't make the difference between Thalmor Agents and Altmers.

"Don't be so depressed."

That simple sentence startled her and she saw two dark golden eyes staring at her. She sighed and began to explain.

"It just reminded me of bad experiences in Cyrodiil. People tend to think all the Altmer are Thalmor even though most are simple travellers and normal see no differences."

"Argonians and Khajiits have a similar problem, though for other reasons."

The silence following was only disturbed by Alvor using his hammer, the sound of hot steel touching water and the light sound of leather getting transformed. Gaenor's expert hands were busy strengthening the main piece of his armour.

"What are you going to do now?" He asked while continuing his work.

"I'm still going to Winterhold, but my map was in my bag..."

"That remained in Helgen, I guess?"

"Indeed..." confirmed Niwen sighing.

"There's a carriage in Whiterun, it can go to each major city in Skyrim" intervened Hadvar approaching the two Mer. He wasn't wearing his imperial armour anymore but a simple tunic, probably borrowed from his uncle. The red hair leaned on one of the beam supporting the roof and listened to Gaenor's explanations of Skyrim's politics and geography to Niwen.

This talk lasted a few minutes before being interrupted by the growling sound of a hungry stomach. All the eyes turned toward Hadvar who quickly disappeared inside the house.

During the lunch,the two Mer agreed to travel to Whiterun together. Then, the mage would take a carriage to Winterhold and the hunter would meet the Jarl. They left not long after the meal. Whiterun was not far, only a few hours away. Niwen had recovered the knapsack she had found in the torture room of Helgen, and put her old robes and potions inside. She was also wearing new boots and leather gloves made by Alvor. Her previous gloves had seriously suffered from her trip in Helgen. Her hood was still hanging on her shoulders since she wanted to enjoy the nice weather.

As for Gaenor, he was wearing his new leather armour. On his back was a bag made of leather and fur he had made in the morning. He had a few things inside: potions, clothes and a few steel arrows, protected in a leather quiver. The arrows' feathering were standing outside of the bag. A quiver of iron arrows was attached to his belt, just below the bag. He could still take them, even though it was maybe less practical than having the quiver at his shoulder blade level. The most important was that he could still take them. He had made a modification on his quiver, so that he could change the strap length and hang it on his shoulder if needed. On the left side of his belt was a strap, with his hunting bow attached to it. This way Gaenor didn't have to carry his bow in his hand all the way but it would be easy to draw if danger came.

They left Alvor and his family in the beginning of the afternoon and crossed the small bridge, and then turned towards Whiterun. Even though Whiterun was not far, they were attacked by two wolves, but the poor beasts quickly looked like pincushions.

The road they were following was winding towards a large valley. From the heights they were standing on, the two Mers (Mer) could admire the view on the fortified city of Whiterun and the few farms not far.

They continued their journey talking about small things, memories and places they visited. The sun was beginning to go down and they had just walked past some buildings,named Honningbrew Meadery according to the small sign, when they felt a small quake shake the earth. Screams were heard not long after, but not panicked screams as we could have expected. Those were more like warrior battle-cries.

The Bosmer hunter didn't waste time and rushed forward drawing his bow and notching an arrow. Niwen followed him half-heartedly. In a field, a giant was fighting against two warriors, one male and one female, and against a huntress. Gaenor shot a few arrows to help them, and the giant, who was a bit distracted by the "mosquitos bites", was finally killed.

While the huntress, a red haired Nord with three lines of war paint across her face, was thanking Gaenor for his help, Niwen got closer to the young female warrior, a brown haired Imperial, whose arm was hurt. She had managed to avoid the mace of the giant but she dumbly fell, and now she had an open wound on her arm.

"May I?" Asked the Altmer pointing at the wound, "I know a few healing spells."

The warrior, called Ria, as Niwen had learned by listening a little the huntress, nodded with hesitation and offered her arm to the improvised healer. The mage gently took Ria's arm, ignoring the mistrusting glares she was receiving. Quickly, light curls wrapped her hand and the wounded arm. After a few minutes, the wound closed leaving a reddish scar.

"You should see a healer to finish taking care of your wound. I can't do more than this." declared the mage.

Ria thanked her and Niwen realised that the two hunters were looking at her. The other warrior, a tall dark haired Nordic with broad shoulders and wearing aheavy armour, was frowning and staring at Gaenor. The latter seemed to feel uncomfortable.

"Farkas, Ria, we're going back," Announced the female hunter, beginning to move towards Whiterun. Shortly after, Gaenor unsheathed a dagger and kneeled down near the giant's corpse. He then began to cut some toes. Niwen quickly turned her head away and noticed a few horses grazing on the other side of the road, near a building. Probably the stables.

While getting closer, they saw two men talking next to a carriage. Niwen approached them in order to obtain information. Her fellow Mer was waiting a bit further.

"Excuse me, does this carriage travel to Winterhold?" She politely asked to the two men.

"It can, but not today, it's getting late and if we leave now, we will arrive in the middle of the night. And travelling by night to Winterhold is not the smartest thing to do!" Exclaimed the one she assumed was the driver. "Come back tomorrow morning and we will leave if you want. It will cost fifty septims. Oh and you should have something to eat, if need be."

The Altmer thanked him and went back to her travelling companion, she explained what was said and they agreed she would go rent a room with two beds while he would meet the Jarl.

**A/N:** **I had so much trouble to find information on bows, since in reality bows don't magically hang in our back... So after hours of researches, I've found an old picture inspiring me. I hope it's credible and I'm sorry if there are mistakes concerning bows (etc...), I'm not an archer. (I don't mind some explanations eventually).**

**Don't hesitate to give you opinion and review :) It gives me coura****ge ****to translate ;)**


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